Many conventional building structures utilize a concrete footings and/or foundation (collectively referred to as a “foundation”) to provide a suitable substrate to support the structure and anchor the structure to the earth. The preparation of the foundation, however, is a time consuming process which adds a significant amount of expense to the building structure. Generally, the foundation is prepared using board forms and stakes to define the contours of the foundation. While such conventional methods offer design flexibility, they have significant drawbacks. These drawbacks include wasted materials required to construct the forms, wasted labor to construct the forms and to check geometry of the forms, poor accuracy of the foundation surfaces and embedded elements, and difficulty in adjusting form locations after stakes are set. Accuracy of the completed foundation is also a concern, with an improperly constructed foundation resulting in inaccuracies in the building elements to be secured to the footing and foundation, such as during the framing process where framing members are secured to the foundation. This inaccuracy has a more consequential negative affect on the framing process for a structure comprising metal framing members since these structures require precise positioning.
Furthermore, once the preparation work for the foundation is completed, the concrete slab of the structure must be poured and the wall structure elements must be secured to the completed foundation. Generally, the flaming members are typically constructed from wood or metal members and are secured to runners which are secured directly to the foundation such as with concrete nails, bolts and other similar methods as is known in the art. While these methods of securing the framing members to the foundation are relatively quick and simple and meet existing building code requirements, they fail to provide the structural strength for the finished wall so that the structure can withstand the forces applied to it during severe conditions, such as earthquakes and severe weather conditions (i.e., tornados and hurricanes and the like).
What the art is lacking is a method which allows wall structure elements to be secured to the foundation in such a manner that the finished wall can withstand sever conditions without structural failure. Furthermore, such method should ideally allow a simplified process for constructing the foundation and the slab components of the building structure. The present disclosure provides such a solution that has not been previously appreciated in the field.